Sacked CID Boss Weeps Over Unfair Treatment After 29-Years Of Service

The former Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), COP Bright Oduro, who was asked to proceed on leave few months to his retirement, is accusing the police hierarchy of unfair treatment.

He bemoans why he was not given a fair hearing over allegations that he is protecting activities of some land-guards in Accra, after 29 years of service.

The Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, is on record to have openly accused Mr. Bright Oduro of having connections with land-guards whose activities have been described as illegal and worrying by Ghanaians.

While dismissing those allegations, ACP Oduro said the Police service should have given him a fair hearing before arriving at the decision to relieve him of his position.

“I don’t think that I deserve to be told to go on leave in such an abrupt manner because there was no reason for me to proceed on leave except that I have heard somewhere that I am pending retirement and I have an accumulated leave and therefore I should proceed on leave. I have no idea why I was asked to proceed on leave except what I read in the Daily Guide that I am not managing land-guard issues well. Kennedy Agyapong has even been waging a relentless verbal assault on me since April; three months into my appointment as Director General, and I believe the reason to go on leave stems from this verbal assault that links me to land-guards.”

“Who are these landguards that I associate with? There are so many questions about this thing. It should have been well responded to and I should have been given the opportunity to respond to them. I do not think it’s fair for anyone to ascribe those things to me. When the Miotso incident happened last year, I was not the Director General, and as I speak to you, the docket sits at the AG’s office so why would he mention it?”

The Inspector General of Police, David Asante Apeatu, in a document cited by Citi News yesterday, asked Bright Oduro’s deputy, ACP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, to act as the Director General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).

ACP Addo-Danquah until her appointment, was the second in command at the CID and was in charge of the newly established Financial Forensic Unit to investigate cases of financial crime in the public sector.

She mounted a spirited defense of her actions, following the release of a tape recording in which she is heard speaking to Kwame Asare Obeng, also known as A-Plus, who had accused President Akufo-Addo’s two Deputy Chiefs of Staff of some malfeasance.

A plus is on record to have subsequently apologized to the two Deputy Chiefs of Staff for wrongfully accusing them.

Retiring police officers work till their last day – Bright Oduro

Mr. Oduro confirmed that he was indeed due for retirement on January 3, 2018, but discounted the police administration's explanation for the new development.

He explained he should have normally started his terminal leave on August 30, 2017 but the convention in the Police Service is that, officers stay on till their last day, and that is exactly what had initially been planned for him, until he was surprisingly asked to proceed on leave last Friday without any explanation.

He insisted a number of serving officers have recently similarly stayed on and worked till their final day and so when he expressed his desire to stay on and work beyond August 30, 2017 and no officer was appointed to replace him, it was an acknowledgment he was going to stay until January 3, 3018.

“All other officers who retired recently used their leave to work, why is Bright Oduro alone to proceed on leave and hand over.”?

“Whoever has taken that decision has not given me a hearing apart from in June there about, when I spoke to the deputy Minister of Interior about it, otherwise no one has spoken to me on it,” he said and added his removal was premised on “complete misinformation and peddling of falsehood against him.”

He, therefore, suggested the Minister of National Security, Mr Albert Kan Dapaah masterminded his untimely removal by sidelining with Kennedy Agyapong's radio allegations without giving him a hearing.

He also said the police administration failed to hear him out and used the radio complaints against him without any official complaint being lodged with the service or he [Oduro] being offered an opportunity to explain himself.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana